HICKORY, NC: Everyone thought Mebane’s Avedis “Mike”
Djeredjian was a legitimate businessman. But when a federal jury
in April of last year convicted him of a conspiracy to launder
money from trafficking in contraband cigarettes, subjecting him to
the forfeiture of over $4.5 million in proceeds on top of a long
prison term, a different story unfolded, one revealing a multi-million dollar smuggling enterprise and demonstrating the power of
federal forfeiture laws to cripple illegal enterprises. The
Djeredjian case was just one successful prosecution cited by
speakers at the Asset Forfeiture and Financial Investigation
Training Conference which kicked off here today.

The United States Attorney from the Eastern District of North
Carolina, the Chief Criminal Assistant U.S. Attorney from the
Western District of North Carolina, Sheriff David Huffman of
Catawba County, and Chief Tom Adkins of the Hickory Police
Department were there to lend their support to this important
topic.

Speaking to the over 150 federal, state, and local law
enforcement professionals assembled here, Eastern District United
States Attorney George E.B Holding exhorted attendees to embrace
asset forfeiture as the way to break the back of criminal
operations: “The law enforcement world has changed. We can’t lock
all the criminals up, and the ones we do lock up, we can’t keep
locked up forever. We can, however, strip them of their criminal
infrastructure, making it very difficult for them to easily return
to their illegal businesses.”

Conference participants have a full agenda of seminars, from
prosecutors discussing the federal and state forfeiture laws to
experienced professionals discussing investigative techniques —
including vehicle searches and seizures, financial investigative
techniques, pre-seizure planning, controlled substance tax
seizures, and the sharing of federally forfeited funds with
participating state and local law enforcement agencies.

“The forfeiture laws are a powerful weapon in law
enforcement’s arsenal,” adds Anna Mills Wagoner, United States
Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. “In these
troubled economic times, it is more important than ever that we use
forfeiture to disrupt and dismantle criminal activity and
enterprise, to divest criminals of the proceeds of their unlawful
activity, and to recover assets for the victims of financial
crimes.”

In the 25 years since the passage of the Comprehensive Crime
Control Act of 1984, a federal law which significantly broadened
the reach of existing forfeiture laws, the seizure of the ill-gotten gains and instrumentalities of crime has become a standard
part of federal criminal investigations and prosecutions. State-wide last year, joint law enforcement efforts yielded forfeitures
of $32.5 million dollars, with over half of that going back to some
173 state and local law enforcement agencies.

Forfeiture is institutionalized in the corridors of federal
law enforcement power. There is a special section in the
Department of Justice devoted exclusively to asset forfeiture.
There are asset forfeiture attorneys as well as support staff in
every U.S. Attorney’s office. Practically all federal agencies
have some kind of forfeiture authority. Prosecutors have to
consider asset forfeiture in their indictments. Both individuals
and their assets are now the targets of criminal investigations.

Moreover, forfeiture and the consequent sharing of seized
property has been a boon to law enforcement cooperation. Federal,
state, and local agencies readily share intelligence information,
form joint task forces, and work together to seize assets.

In closing, U.S. Attorney Holding admonished attendees to “Go
deep. Don’t leave assets on the table. Identify, seize, and
forfeit all the instrumentalities and proceeds of crime. Take the
profit out of crime.”

Twenty-five years ago a cigarette smuggler like Mike
Djeredjian might have served time but been left with a stash of
cash and property to return to on release. Not today.

News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney’s web pages,
according to District. Please visit either
www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce (Eastern), www.usdoj.gov/usao/ncm(Middle)
and/or www.usdoj.gov/usao/ncw (Western) within 48 hours of
release.

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